First-time mothers of toddlers: The influence of attachment style, capacity for empathy, and perception of social support on maternal adjustment

This study examined first-time mothers' experiences of adjusting to mothering their toddlers. The subjects were 97 married women between 28 and 38 years old with children between 18 and 36 months old. A review of the literature demonstrated the need to focus on the mother's experience of herself and her relationship with others as she adjusts to demands of mothering. Thus, the present study was conceptualized within a relational framework. Relational theory posits that the goal of development is "attachment-individuation" rather than "separation-individuation" (Lyons-Ruth, 1991). As such, it was proposed that mothers who had positive relational qualities, that is, secure attachment, capacity for empathy, and perception of adequate social supports, would adjust better than mothers with poor relational qualities. Maternal adjustment was conceptualized as multidimensional, incorporating confidence, sense of control, perception of stress, and gratification.; Attachment styles were measured using the Attachment Style Inventory (Sperling, Berman & Fagan, 1991) and the Adult Attachment Scale (Collins & Read, 1990). A cross-validation study was also done with these two measures, with results suggesting that they measured separate yet related dimensions of adult attachment.; Findings indicated that mothers who were less secure, that is, higher on avoidant, resistant-ambivalent and hostile dimensions of attachment, reported a more difficult adjustment than more securely attached mothers. Unanticipated, inconsistent results were found in the relationship between empathy and both attachment style and maternal adjustment, indicating a need for further exploration of both the conceptualization and the measurement of empathy.; The findings also demonstrated a significant relation between perception of support and both attachment styles and the mother's experience of stress. These findings supported the current research which has found that social support buffers one's sense of stress. The findings also demonstrated the importance of attachment style as an organizing principle of personality which affects the way one perceives the availability of others in times of need. Finally, the findings support the conceptualization of "mother" embedded in a relational matrix as a "mother-child-father unit", not unlike Winnicott's description of the infant as a "mother-infant unit", rather than conceptualizing her experiences in isolation.